Heather Bragman, The Post-StandardBelle Roulton: At 93, she remembers when celebrating Christmas was synonymous with downtown Syracuse.

Belle Roulton, in today's column, nails a civic longing felt by many of us in every Yuletide. Belle is 93. As a child, living in an apartment in downtown Syracuse, she was raised by a mother whose scant income came from cleaning the homes of wealthy families in the city.

Yet Belle speaks of how downtown was such a magical place that its sheer beauty, and sense of community, was compensation for a child growing up with almost nothing. That is hardly the case today with the malls, commercial temples that have little magic about them. And it leads you to believe, with some passion and imagination, that we could find ways of again making downtown a traditional stop for every family.

John Murray of Syracuse, for instance, suggests that corporate leaders ought to hold a high-powered holiday competition that rewards artists for decorating the storefront windows of South Salina Street. I'd also suggest convincing owners of signficant downtown properties, notably the State Tower Building, to illuminate their buildings for the Yuletide.

We desperately need some unique daily attraction for children, some successor to the old monorail at Edwards, that would become a new downtown tradition for Central New York families. And I would make one last suggestion that would benefit Ontrack, and downtown, and also help to establish the symbiotic link - green, if you will - between downtown and the expanding Carousel Center, a link many feel will never come to exist ...

We ought to establish some magnificent throneroom for Santa Claus at the MOST or the Landmark Theatre. Then, on weekends and at least some weeknights next year, why not run some kind of magical "Polar Express" experience from Carousel, where families pause from shopping to ride the train downtown in order to find Santa, while being served hot chocolate and other surprises along the way, and then returning whenever they feel like it after voyaging downtown? Are you telling me that wouldn't be a far more memorable event than doing the same-old fast-break-from-shopping Santa bit near Old Navy?

In any event, I'm interested in your thoughts and ideas. As a treat on Christmas Eve, in the comments below, I attach three especially powerful letters and notes about downtown that I received last year.